Volume: 45 Number: 1 Year: 1993 Chronicle: 157

Article: The Postal History Legacy of Miss Harriet Butler ShawAuthor(s): Jon W. Rose

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CoverDisplay Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Richard C. Frajola Inc. 1Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: William A. Fox Auctions, Inc. 2Masthead (1 page) 3Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Victor B. Krievins 4Table of Contents (1 page) 5Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Edward Hines 6

Book ReviewReview: "San Francisco Postal Markings, 1847-1900" (1 page)Richard B. Graham

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Review: "Pen, Ink, & Evidence" (1 page) 7Sanitary Fairs/ A Philatelic and Historical Study of Civil War Benevolences. (1 page) 8

Guest PrivilegeU.S. Government-Authorized Private Mail Service 1787-1800 (Part 2) (5 pages)Robert J. Stets Sr.

9

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Prestamp and Stampless PeriodWhite's Landing: An Alabama River Origin Marking (4 pages)James W. Milgram M.D.

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Another Curiosity From Middle Haddam, Connecticut (2 pages)Frank Mandel

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Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: James E. Lee 20

Carriers and Independent MailsA 5¢ 1847 Letter Revisited: Was It a Carrier Delivered Overpaid Drop Letter? (9 pages)Steven M. Roth

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1851-61 PeriodThe U.S. Three Cent Postage Stamps of 1851-57: a Compilation of Recut and Plate Varieties(Revised Edition) (7 pages)William K. McDaniel

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1861-1869 PeriodDuplex Handstamps, Marcus P. Norton and Patent Cancels of the 1860s (5 pages)Richard B. Graham

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Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Leonard H. Hartmann 43Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Andrew Levitt 44

1869 PeriodThe Postal History Legacy of Miss Harriet Butler Shaw (6 pages)Jon W. Rose

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Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: U.S.P.C.S. 51Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: U.S.P.C.S. 51

OfficialsCancellations on United States Official Stamps, 1873-1884 (9 pages)Alan C. Campbell

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From the Editor (1 page)Alfred E. Staubus

60

Foreign MailsEditor's Note (1 page)Richard F. Winter

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Postal Routes and Rates for Mail between German States and the United States, 1840-1870 (7pages)Wolfgang Diesner

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Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: U.S.P.C.S. 67

The Cover CornerAnswers to Problem Covers in Issue 156 (2 pages)Scott Gallagher

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Problem Covers for This Issue (2 pages)Scott Gallagher

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THE 1869 PERIODSCOTT R. TREPEL, Editor

THE POSTAL HISTORY LEGACY OF MISS HARRIET BUTLER SHAWJON w. ROSE

Sidney W. Emery, who provided much of the information in this article, is a collectorof the 1869 Issue with a very specialized interest in the correspondence of Miss Harriet B.Shaw (Figure 1). Known as "Hat" Shaw because of her fondness for hats, Miss Shaw wasa resident of Alfred, Maine, for most of her 91 years before her death in 1933. She was apioneering mail order dealer whose records consisted primarily of the envelopes she re­ceived from customers during the years 1865-1881. Many envelopes bear stamps of the1869 Issue, often used with stamps from the preceding 1861-67 issues or the succeedingBank Note issues. It may not be an overstatement to say the Shaw correspondence pro­vides as many as five to ten percent of the 1869 Issue covers known today.

For many years Emery has sought these Shaw covers, and has formed a postal histo­ry exhibit of them. Letters flowed into the Shaw residence at 15 South Street, Alfred,Maine, from all over the United States, as well as foreign lands such as Canada, Peru,Brazil and Germany. As many contained money orders or cash, they were sent registered,especially at the 15¢ rate.

What follows is the story of Miss H.B. Shaw, the discovery of her cover cache, andthe contributions to U.S. postal history and collectors' holdings brought about by thebookkeeping habits of the super saleswoman.

Figure 1. The home ("Brick Ends") of Harriet B. Shaw, 15 South Street, Alfred, Maine.The shed with dormer windows at far left contained the Shaw correspondence, a postalhistory legacy (circa 1865·1881) of tens of thousands of covers for today's collectors. Ear­ly photo shows local folk with head gear favored by "Hat" Shaw and white fence, nowgone. Insert: Miss Harriet B. Shaw as a young woman in her twenties at the start of herpioneering mail order business. Born in 1842, she died in 1933 at the age of 91.

Chronicle 157 I February 1993 I Vol. 45, No. I 45

All collectors dream of the "big fmd," a horde of untouched, old letters or albumsfull of 19th century stamps, lying forgotten in someone's attic or stored away in filing cab­inets of some business.

Sterling T. Dow, a Portland, Maine, stamp dealer, collector and Maine postal histori­an, was an inveterate seeker of stamp and cover hordes. Sometime in the 1920s Dow gotto talking with an antique furniture repairer who worked in a town near Alfred, Maine.Dow asked him if, in his travels, he had ever come upon batches of old letters. Twice therepairman said no, but on a third visit he recalled a horde in a woodshed in Alfred.Through a friend, who happened to be a friend of the woodshed owner as well, Dow wasable to secure permission to check the shed.

cun~ fo"OR DltUN'J{t.:NN~SS.

Sulphllte of Iroll thre~ gr,lin:f; I\faglll:~",ill t~u graillM; l't:ppctlllilltwo.ter eleyen dr:ull!t; SI,iril4lf Nutmeg llllllllnulli tu he lakt:1l (luceur twice II dllY. if IH:r.t.'!l.·lary. (ilr five or ",ix 1lI11ulhJ4. 'I'his I'r'~lmralillll

.c~ III II tonic Illld IItilJlulunl, nlld .UI'pli~. Ihe JllacB uf tht: acr.U'!l_

}::roe;.1~1~O:~j~:~eI7::ti~ge o~~I~r:IIIID;~ ~~';~1l1t~;:;t~I~~::~'. w!;:~;~above would. lener.lI, have to be u~ed with the cuns,'nl of thep',tienL If it i. d8llired 10 use a remed1 without the knowled~e

of me patient, take eiKht grain. ur Tarlnr ":lIletic. Dnd mi. inrour OQnc_.or Rote Water. Put a tabJeo4lpoonrol into Ihe ",ltol.qUlltity 1M penon i~ in til, habit q( JriRkin8 in alit doYi ur""1• em.1I tea"ll()llllrllll0 each ,Iau. no lIuro and nHI exr.{'cod ,h••qrutn1i';w.

1

-------A ) A\' nlADE AT HOlUB !-33 En a$25 tlrel, new arllcles for Agents. &twples

lent-1ree.Addreu H. D. 8HAW, Alfred. lie.- ----_.

Figure 2. Some of the advertisements run by H.B. Shaw. Upper left: British Oleon (Per­sian plum oil) for hair care. Upper right: classified ads seeking agents to sell her prod­ucts, some of which were fraudulently promoted. Lower left: A sample cure for drunken­ness, including sulfate of iron, peppermint water and a shot of nutmeg. Lower right,"Liquid Lightning", a stain remover which claimed to remove almost anything from al­most everything.

46 Chronicle 157 I February 1993 I Vol. 45. No. I

Upon investigating, Dow discovered bundles and bundles of old letters placed uponthe beams inside the shed. The owner had already agreed to sell them to Dow. There wereso many, however, that transporting them was a major problem. Dow purchased threelarge sugar barrels from the town store, filled them with the "covers," and shipped them tohis home by rail. But the barrels were delayed in shipment. Dow was frantic. Finally, hereturned to the shed, fIlled three more barrels and had these shipped by American Express.Both shipments, rail and express, arrived about the same time.

Dow worked on the cover horde all winter, scolded constantly by his wife for"spending money for those dirty old letters which the rats have been running over foryears." Unfortunately, Dow removed many stamps from the envelopes and threw themaway, postal markings and all! Cover collecting was in its infancy then, and there was nomarket for many of them.

These letters all came from the business correspondence of Harriet Butler Shaw, whowas active during the years 1865-81. Shaw sold notions, cosmetics and various quaintcure-alls. Among her best sellers were British oleon (Persian plum oil), a hair tonic, and"Liquid Lightning," a cleaner and stain remover ("instantly removes paint, grease, tar,pitch, and varnish from all articles of wool, silk, cotton, velvet and satin"). Shaw was as­sisted by her brother, Greene. Potential customers read her advertisements in hundreds ofnewspapers and magazines (Figure 2).

Among Shaw's other goods was a foolproof flyswatter (two small blocks of wood),Shaw's Brazilian Magic Lustre (a polish allegedly containing minerals from Brazilian dia­mond mines, but actually a cake of brick dust), a $1 sewing machine (actually a needle,thimble and spool of thread), and various patent medicines.

Offering free samples as inducements, she tried to recruit sales agents for her prod­ucts across the United States (Figure 2, upper right). Her bookkeeping was the essence ofsimplicity. When orders arrived, she usually wrote on the envelope the amount of the re­mittance and noted the date it was received. The envelopes were bundled by date in lots of100 each (as Dow discovered them).

What did Dow fmd among what eventually turned out to be some 150,000 covers?Many of the letters were sent registered, and many of these were franked with a 15¢ stampfor the registration rate from 1869-74 (Figures 3 and 4). In all Dow had more than 1,00015¢ stamps of seven different varieties. This would seem to indicate that the coversspanned a chronological period stretching beyond 1880, but it was not so. The 15¢ stamps

Figure 3. A typical registered letter to H.B. Shaw, Esq. from Currituck, North Carolina,franked with a Type 1115¢ 1869 on a 3¢ pink Nesbitt (Scott's #U21).

Chronicle 157 I February 1993 I Vol. 45, No. I 47

, ;f1 , .."-'~

, ./r? IJI v .

Figure 4. A 15¢ F grill Lincoln and a 3¢ 1869 locomotive pay registered letter rate January4,1870, from Kalida, Ohio, to Mr. (!) H.B. Shaw, 15 South St., Alfred, Maine.

included the 15¢ black Lincoln of 1866 (Scott's #77); the 15¢ F grill Lincoln (Scott's#98); the 15¢ 1869s, types I and II (cataloging on cover today $1,000 and $750, respec­tively); and three types of the 15¢ Daniel Webster Bank Note stamps, the National withand without grill ($1,350 and $225, respectively) and the 15¢ Continental (Scott's #163,$250).

Dow recalled that the stamps on covers included more than 50 grilled Bank Notes,more than 100 1¢ 1869s plus 40 strips of three of the 1¢ (Figure 5), a diagonal bisect ofthe 6¢ 1869, and many bisects of the 6¢ ungrilled Bank Note, But, as Dow reported:"Lamentably, there was not one (bisect) that I could not have made myself. Either theywere pen-cancelled or the cancellation did not tie the split to the cover, Too bad,"

Figure 5. A vertical strip of three of the 1¢ 1869 pays letter rate from Marietta, Georgia,December 20,1869, to H.B. Shaw. Letter enclosed is from 26-year-old man seeking to be­come a dealer-agent for Shaw's products. He writes: "If you (Miss Shaw) would like toestablish an agency at this place, I would like to be the one appointed, if you have confi­dence in me so far from you 00'"

One of the loveliest 6¢ items was a horizontal strip of three of the 6¢ National withgrill. Interestingly, the right hand stamp had a well defined grill, the middle a faint one andthe left no grill points at all discernible,

48 Chronicle 157 / February 1993 / Vol. 45, No. I

A. X)..A1V1!lF:IlIB..WUOLIIIALa

(;rocer a.1i LI"gluw Dealer,IHW-..J ....

ALLlIOnE~YCITY.

Dow also examined the contents of the envelopes addressed to Shaw and made somechoice finds. These included more than 300 unused 3¢ stamps, several 2¢ stamps, and amint block of six of the 3¢ 1869 (2 x 3). There was also U.S. and Canadian currency,including a number of 3¢ pieces and silver 5¢ coins.

Strangely, Dow did not obtain all the Shaw covers. In 1926 a noncollector uncoveredanother 30,000 letters. Dow did act as dealer agent in disposing of these. Among the out­standing items were: a cover with a diagonal Black Jack bisect (Scott's #73) attached to awhoLe copy, both extra fine; two 2¢ 1870 Bank Note bisects (then known as "splits"); twostrips of three of the 6¢ L869; a bisect of the 2¢ 1869 with pen cancel; 23 1869 15¢ Type IIcovers and two 15¢ Type I covers, all presumably registered usages.

Today H.B. Shaw covers grace dozens if not hundreds of stamp collections, includ­ing that of the writer of this article. The Emery collection, which is based on the Shaw cor­respondence, is notable for its variety. Among its 1869 Issue Shaw covers are: Eight withthe l¢ Franklin, 11 20¢ (including one diagonal bisect), dozens of 3¢ (Figures 6 and 7),one 6¢, four 12¢ and three 15¢. Emery's Shaw covers were mailed from 37 different statesand three U.S. territories. Dated covers span a 13-year time frame, July 1868 to February

Figure 6. A. Danner's wholesale grocery and liquor store is illustrated on this 3¢ 1869cover from Allegheny (City), Pennsylvania, addressed to H.B. Shaw, Esq., presumingShaw to be a man.

Figure 7. A nicely struck "FROM JONESBORO ILL. C.R.R." postmark enhances this other­wise ordinary 3¢ 1869 cover to Mr. (I) H.B. Shaw, probably January 6,1870, usage.

Chronicle 157 I February 1993 I Vol. 45, No. I 49

1881. New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania are the most common states of origin. The coversinclude registered pieces showing all four registry rates for the 1868-81 time period: 20¢,15¢, 8¢ and IO¢, in that order.

This is one of the most interesting postal rate facts about this period. In the space of13 years the registry rate changed from 20¢ to 15¢ on January 1, 1869; from 15¢ to 8¢ onJanuary 1, 1874; from 8¢ to 1O¢ on July 1, 1875, where it remained until January 1, 1893.Covers with the 1869 Issue showing the 8¢ registry rate are uncommon, as they representvery late uses of the stamps. One Emery cover from Iowa shows the 8¢ registry rate plusthe 3¢ letter rate, paid by a 2¢ 1869, two 3¢ 1869s and a 3¢ Bank Note stamp.

The Shaw correspondence story has many fascinating footnotes. Harriet Shaw neveradvertised the fact that she was a young woman, so virtually all the envelopes are ad­dressed to Mr. H.B. Shaw or RB. Shaw (often with Esquire appended). Miss Shaw had tosuspend her operations when she got into trouble with postal inspectors for alleged fraudu­lent use of the mails.

Harriet Shaw is remembered as "very much a lady, petite, strongwilled and distinc­tive, and loyal to her Congregational church" by a close neighbor, Miss Evelyn Thomp­son. Harriet Shaw died on December 22, 1933, at the age of 91, the oldest resident of Al­fred, Maine. She died at her home, 15 South Street, left to her by her father. The legacy ofher voluminous correspondence ensures her immortality among cover collectors.

Figure 8. Registered (15CI letter from Charleston. SC. 28 Sept. 1869. to H.B. Shaw. Esq.•franked with 15C F grill Lincoln and 3C 1869 locomotive.

50 Chronicle 157 I February 1993 I Vol. 45, No. 1